Merchant Shipping Act 1894

Documents and Forms.

719 Proof of documents.

All documents purporting to be made, issued, or written by or under the direction of the Board of Trade, and to be sealed with the seal of the Board, or to be signed by their secretary or one of their assistant secretaries, or, if a certificate, by one of the officers of the Marine Department, shall be admissible in evidence in manner provided by this Act.

720 Power of Board of Trade to prescribe forms.

(1) Subject to any special provisions of this Act the Board of Trade may prepare and sanction forms for any book, instrument, or paper required under this Act, other than those required under the First Part of this Act, and may make such alterations in these forms as they think fit.

(2) The Board shall cause every such form to be sealed with their seal or marked with some other distinguishing mark, and before finally issuing any form or making any alteration in a form shall cause public notice thereof to be given in such manner as the Board think requisite in order to prevent inconvenience.

(3) The Board of Trade shall cause all such forms to be supplied at all custom houses and mercautile marine offices in the United Kingdom, free of charge, or at such moderate prices as the Board may fix, or the Board may license any persons to print and sell the forms.

(4) Every such book, instrument, or paper, required under this Act shall be made in the form (if any) approved by the Board of Trade, or as near thereto as circumstances permit, and unless so made shall not be admissible in evidence in any civil proceeding on the part of the owner or master of any ship.

(5) Every such book, instrument, or paper, if made in a form purporting to be the proper form, and to be sealed or marked in accordance with this section, shall be deemed to be in the form required by this Act unless the contrary is proved.

721 Exemption from stamp duty.

The following instruments shall be exempt from stamp duty:—

(a) Any instruments used for carrying into effect the First Part of this Act; and

(b) Any instruments used by or under the direction of the Board of Trade in carrying into effect the Second, Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Parts of this Act; and

(c) Any instruments which are by those Parts of this Act required to be in a form approved by the Board of Trade, if made in that form.

722 Offences as to use of forms.

(1) If any person—

(a) forges, assists in forging, or procures to be forged, the seal or any other distinguishing mark of the Board of Trade on any form issued by the Board of Trade under this Act; or

(b) fraudulently alters, or assists in fraudulently altering, or procures to be fraudulently altered, any such form,

that person shall in respect of each offence be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(2) If any person—

(a) when a form approved by the Board is, under the Second Part of this A ct, required to be used, uses without reasonable cause a form not purporting to be a form so approved; or

(b) prints, sells, or uses any document purporting to be a form approved by the Board of Trade, knowing the same not to be the form approved for the time being, or not to have been prepared or issued by the Board of Trade,

that person shall, for each offence, be liable to a line not exceeding ten pounds.